Architectural Design Practice Research Articles

Current architectural design trends in times of sustainable development. Part 2. Impact of social factors

The problems of introducing socially oriented methods of improving the quality of the living environment into the practice of architectural design are are touched upon. The object of the study was multifunctional buildings and complexes – multi-apartment housing, as well as student dormitories. The subject of the study is socially oriented methods of improving consumer properties of the living environment. The purpose of the work is to systematize and generalize the principles, the most effective approaches and ways to improve architectural solutions that take into account the influence of socio-demographic and psychological factors. Tasks of the work: identification of topical issues reflected in the current legislative framework and regulatory documents, search and study of modern facilities designed or built in Russia and abroad using socially oriented methods, their analysis and systematization. Results. Modern ways of taking into account social factors are identified and demonstrated. Some basic principles are formulated that correspond to the Goals of Sustainable Development and the tasks of adapting project solutions to the most important needs of people.

Exploring Digital Visualization Methods in Urban Public Building Space Design

Digital technology has driven the innovation of architectural design methods and tools, applying digital techniques to allow greater possibilities for more innovative and scientific design of public building spaces. This article first analyzes the characteristics of digital visualization and its advantages in the design of urban public building spaces, including aspects such as visualizing three-dimensional expression, rational analysis of building space, Virtual Reality Experience, and integration of design and construction processes. Subsequently, by introducing digital design methods such as parametric design, algorithmic generation, nonlinear design, and artificial intelligence-assisted design, it explores the methods and implementation approaches of digital visualization in the design of public building spaces. The aim is to offer insights and references for the deeper integration of digital technology into architectural design practices.

A Study of Information Architecture and Interaction

In the current era of rapid development of information, the field of visual communication design carries the important mission of conveying information and optimizing user experience. This study aims to deeply analyze the core principles and strategies of information architecture and interaction design in visual communication design, as well as the relevance and importance of the two in enhancing design efficiency and user experience. Through the form of case studies, this paper specifies the strategies and methods for building effective information architecture in visual communication design projects, such as target user group analysis, information classification and organization, and navigation system design. The research focuses on the practical and theoretical foundations of interaction design, and explains the key role of interaction design in enhancing user experience and information interactivity. The paper meticulously explores the basic principles of interaction design, such as consistency, feedback, and control, and how these principles can be applied in visual communication design to build intuitive and efficient user interfaces. This paper proposes a multidimensional optimization strategy, including interdisciplinary teamwork, user research and testing, and iterative design, to promote the effective integration of information architecture and interaction design. To summarize, this study not only delves into the application and practice of information architecture and interaction design in visual communication design, but also provides a set of theoretical frameworks and practical design strategies for designers and researchers, with a view to advancing the field of visual communication design to a higher goal by improving the interactability of information and user experience.

Inherited Geometry: a Socio-Professional Pattern in the Low Countries, 1480-1560

At the beginning of the 16th century the Habsburg Low Countries witnessed the emergence of a highly skilled class of painters who also often actively engaged in architectural design practice. This phenomenon has often been explained as being the result of an influx of Italian and humanist thinking about the artist such via the writings of figures like Alberti and Vitruvius. In this article, I propose an alternative account, using selected case studies to argue that this development was an internal process. Essential to changing design practices was the transfer of geometrical design knowledge between guilds, a transfer that transgressed traditional boundaries. Finally, I explore the effect of this knowledge dissemination on the evolving status of the visual artist.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND PRACTICE DESIGNING URBAN COMPLEXES ON THE EXAMPLE OF KYIV

The article examines the interaction of architectural research and design practice regarding the reconstruction of nodal public complexes of large cities. Examining the urban transformations of modern Ukrainian cities on the example of Kyiv allows the author to state the low effectiveness of our scientific recommendations. However, the coverage of such studies can have both scientific and practical results as recommendations for urban planning managers and designers. Some directions of the transformation of the urban environment at the turn of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century in Ukraine are highlighted using the example of the city of Kyiv. Prospective trends of possible directions of transformation of the typology of public centers and residential complexes are formulated. The trends of reconstruction and development of the architectural and town-planning structure are considered. The hierarchy of residential and public centers of large cities as the main structural nodes of the city in unity with the transport and pedestrian infrastructure is presented. Conclusions are made on possible directions of transformation of existing buildings with the formation of new types of public centers. A retrospective examination of competition practice in Kyiv at the end of the 20th century allows the author to systematize his many years of scientific research and design practice in the part of forming the architecture of public centers. The scientific results of the research were implemented in a number of experimental and competitive projects of the author of public centers in Kyiv. The use of a systemic approach allows for the development of public centers regarding the placement and organization of the internal structure of such complexes.

Integrating Augmented Reality in Architectural Design: A New Paradigm

The explores into the significant impact of augmented reality (AR) within the domain of architectural. The research being conducted examines the transformative effect of augmented reality (AR) on the practice of architectural design, including the entire process from basic conceptualization through ultimate execution. The present investigation analyzes the utilization of augmented reality (AR) as an approach to enhance visualization, increase design accuracy, and ease client communication. This study discusses the advantages of augmented reality (AR) in facilitating the production of realistic and engaging design experiences. By using AR technology, designers are able to go past the restrictions presented by standard two-dimensional drawings and realistic models. The work addresses the challenges and obstacles linked to augmented reality (AR) technology, such equipment standards and technical knowledge. This article provides a comprehensive examination of current uses of augmented reality (AR) in architecture, utilizing a combination of mathematical modeling and practical case studies. Also, it analyzes the potential of AR to reshape the next phase of architectural design.

Application of Sustainable Architectural Design Principles to Enhance Ecotourism in Cross River State, Nigeria

Architecture transcends all aspect of human endeavours including its relationship with place, culture, recreation, and nature/historic sites of a people which contributes to its tourism potentials. But ecotourism is sustainable enhances natural ecological attraction, their conservation and development through sustainable architectural planning frameworks. This paper aimed at exploring and enhancing the ecotourism potential of Agbokim and Kwa falls in Cross River State Nigeria as case studies through provision of attractive infrastructure and landscaping associated with architecture. The methodology of study used was qualitative case study method with the use of interviews, observations through visitation, and review of literature respectively. The analysis was carried out using inferential statistics in table for presentations. The study revealed that both Kwa falls and Agbakim waterfall sites in Cross River State, Nigeria was not fused with architecture, for development as attractive tourism and historic sites that can boost the tourism potential of any place. The study emphasized the need to develop and maintain these historic and nature-given sites using sustainable architectural design practices to enhance their ecotourism values/potentials that will attract millions of tourists to the sites and be recognized by World Tourism Organization (WTO) and UNESCO as tourist sites respectively.

The impact of architecturally qualified data in deep learning methods for the automatic generation of social housing layouts

The objective of this work is to explore the impact of the data in the automatic generation of social housing layouts with different deep learning models. The design of Social Housing is a subfield of architecture that necessitates, from the architect, a high degree of precision in refining layouts to effectively address both the programmatic requirements and the aspiration to attain the utmost architectural quality to guarantee inhabitants comfort. This dual challenge stands to gain significantly from the incorporation of data-driven generative processes bolstered by machine learning techniques in general and deep learning ones in particular. The most widely used dataset for data-driven layout generation with deep learning methods is RPLAN, a generic floor plan dataset available online. Although it contains a significant amount of plans, it lacks any information about the architectural quality criteria used for the selection of the data. We conducted an initial analysis of the architectural consistency and key quality features of RPLAN. Upon finding several issues that raise doubts about its suitability for training social housing generation models, we proceeded to create PUBLICPLAN, a new dataset based on proposals submitted and evaluated in public architecture competitions in Spain over the past three years. It comprises 2446 distinct layouts extracted from 1279 proposals in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. All of these layouts demonstrate high architectural standards. Then, we retrained the three most advanced existing models for generating interior plans using PUBLICPLAN and compared their performance to the same models trained with different subsets of RPLAN. Once the models were trained, we conducted several experiments comparing different models and data subsets and evaluating the impact of the quantity and quality of the data on the models' performance. Those experiments involved over two hundred architects and architecture students. We also examined the plausibility of the generated plans being synthetic with a survey asking to distinguish between human and machine generated layout plans. Our results showed that PUBLICPLAN had a significant impact compared to the alternatives with a similar number of cases. In the examination of the feasibility of human-generated plans, over 48.43% of architects and architecture students identified machine-generated plans as being of human origin. Moreover, in qualitative experiments conducted with an equivalent dataset, our qualified dataset PUBLICPLAN demonstrated a significantly superior human rating (72.13%) when evaluated by human assessors, as compared to models trained with RPLAN. This highlights the importance of using qualified datasets in deep learning for the generation of social housing layouts. We also identified challenges and priorities in the research field, both in the deep learning process and architectural design practices.

Scenarios of Building Information Modelling-Based Design Education in Architecture Schools

Due to the rapid development of computer technologies and trends in digital design, including building information modeling (BIM) and its diffusion into architectural design practice, it was necessary to introduce BIM into architectural curricula in order to prepare students for practice. This article therefore aims to identify scenarios for teaching BIM to architecture students worldwide. To achieve this objective, a thematic analysis of BIM teaching experiences in several selected academic institutions was conducted. The data studied included published articles and official university websites dealing with BIM teaching. A theoretical framework for BIM education was determined, comprising two aspects: pedagogical methods for BIM education and specifications for BIM courses in architecture programs. The document identified several scenarios for teaching BIM in multidisciplinary or architecture-specific courses. BIM teaching can be offered as part of a single course integrated with other courses, or as a separate course. It may be taught as part of related or unrelated courses. Related courses can be organized in parallel with an academic semester, or over several semesters. In addition, there are different types of input to project-based BIM teaching, such as a new design project, the results of a previous design course or an actual project. These scenarios can serve as a reference for universities wishing to integrate BIM into their programs.

READING THE PAST: ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF PREVALENT PANDEMICS ON CITIES

Throughout history, dozens of epidemics have appeared cyclically, often causing devastating effects. Some of them, such as plague, cholera, and tuberculosis, have led to significant social, economic, and political consequences, with evident repercussions on cities and architecture. In this regard, urban planning has played an essential role in improving life expectancy and limiting the spread of epidemics. This work aims to study the influence of prevalent pandemics on architecture and urbanism over the centuries to comprehend their response and adaption to new health and social requirements. Through a process of investigation and in-depth examination of the literature review, it has been possible to understand the impact of pandemics in cities. The appearance of the first preventive measures during the plague period, the urban interventions to combat the cholera outbreak, and the neat architectural features adopted following the appearance of tuberculosis are witnesses to this process. Professionals and academics are reflecting on the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, which will affect the practice of architecture and urban design. Thanks to the results obtained, it will be possible to reflect on the impact of the pandemic on contemporary cities, understand their potential resilience and hypothesise future strategies.

Alternativeness in the Architectural Design of Bridges and Overpasses

Modern extensive foreign and domestic experience in design and construction of multifunctional overpasses and bridges indicates that they have become an integral part of urbanised systems. They are endowed with the functions of important urban objects, and with their appearance they have won the right to be considered iconic structures. The subject of the article refers to architectural design of bridges and overpasses. The authors set themselves the task of considering the aspects of combining the main functional characteristics with the aesthetic properties of the object, designating visual components of the project and the specifics of alternativeness of design.The objective of the work is to consider alternativeness in architectural design of bridges and overpasses. A complex method, combining an analysis of the historical and modern experience of architectural theory and design practices, was based on technical literary materials. The study resulted in formulating indicators and leading principles of alternative design.The use of alternatives in the process of designing urban bridges and overpasses allows not only to consider functionality and economic feasibility of a particular project and construction of an object, but also its architectural and artistic orientation, aesthetic component, as well as the designer’s worldview and current trends in architecture. In the process of alternative design of bridges and overpasses, it is required to reproduce the overall complete image of the future structure, consider all kinds of details in structures and shape, and various criteria for layout and location in the environment.

A study to depict challenges and opportunities building industry professionals face when designing inclusive and accessible buildings

Inclusive Design has been widely promoted in the fields of product, engineering, and user experience design. Despite the educational efforts made by scientists, practitioners, and institutions to raise awareness about accessibility and inclusion, Inclusive Design has not been widely embraced in architectural design practice, where it is often associated with design for disability. This multidisciplinary study, spanning behavioural science, ergonomics, and the social sciences of architecture, explores the challenges architectural design practitioners face when designing inclusively, and identifies opportunities to promote the adoption of Inclusive Design. The results of a questionnaire completed by 114 architectural design practitioners underscore the lack of client awareness of the benefits of inclusive design, highlight the important role practitioners can play in advocating for Inclusive Design, and emphasize the need to develop practices and tools that enhance the design and post-design phases of buildings to ensure inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility.

Circularity Indicators as a Design Tool for Design and Construction Strategies in Architecture

This study addresses the challenges and barriers associated with the implementation of circular economy principles in architectural design and construction practices. It highlights the fragmented knowledge and lack of a unified approach to circular design as a major obstacle hindering the adoption of circularity. The existing frameworks for assessing circularity, such as the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) protocol and the Level(s) assessment protocol, are applied to two projects with a high degree of deconstruction to understand their applicability in the architectural design process and identify their limitations. The study emphasises the significance of considering structural connectivity and circularity strategies during the concept-design stage, advocating for the incorporation of circularity at various scales beyond the microscale of materials. Furthermore, it emphasises the need for early implementation of Design for Disassembly (DfD) strategies on circularity scoring to enable meaningful comparisons of alternative designs using circularity metrics. The findings reveal the variability of circularity indicators based on the hierarchy of disassembly and highlights an early-stage design approach to deconstruction strategies to achieve circularity in architectural design. Overall, this study upscales the significance of a comprehensive and integrated approach to circularity in architectural design practices.

Coordinated Development Practice of Urban Architectural Design and Urban and Rural Planning Based on Ecological Niche Theory

Coordinated Development Practice of Urban Architectural Design and Urban and Rural Planning Based on Ecological Niche Theory

Politicized aesthetics: Questioning the neutrality of museum architecture and exhibition design

Despite three decades of postcolonial critique and repatriations, most collections of displaced cultural objects are still hosted in the controversial architectural spaces of Western museums whose design shifts from an allegedly neutral ‘white cube’ to questionable forms of recontextualization. The contradiction between exhibited cultural objects and gallery space is primarily embodied by the history of the host buildings, and in this setting, the Western aesthetics of architecture and exhibition design practices embed a subtle form of neo-colonization reinforced by the rhetoric of the impossibility of repatriation. Through a critical review, this paper discusses the equivocal use of both ‘neutral’ aesthetics and recontextualized spaces for displaying African art/artifacts in Western museums. I offer not a solution but a set of derived principles through which we can start a conversation on decolonized design practices. If aesthetics are by-products of a specific cultural, political, and socio-economic context, how could the hosting architectural space respond to the aesthetics of cultural objects – if a response is even possible.

SIMULATING HUMAN SENSES TO IMPROVE THERMAL COMFORT

Between the synergies of environmental perception and technological advancement evolves the parallel world of the metaverse. Evolutionary virtuality intends to aid humanity in envisioning the threatened future of cities under environmental risks through tailored features. Traditionally, the sense of sight – which is the focus of virtual reality – has dominated the architectural practice. However, architects and urban designers have begun incorporating other senses into their work over the recent decade. The expanding understanding of the multimodal nature of the human mind that has evolved from cognitive neuroscience research has received little attention so far in the architecture field. This paper investigates the role of synthesized sensory experiences – such as visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and thermal sensations – in designing revolutionary settings that aim to improve people’s interactions with their surrounding environments. A 15-minute experiment of an immersive experience in an office setting using virtual reality headsets is utilized to explore the role of multimodal sensory integration towards tolerance to the thermal environment. The findings revealed significant potential in using multiple senses – especially gustatory – to design thermally comfortable spaces. It is hoped that architectural design practice would progressively include our developing understanding of human senses and how they interact. This holistic approach ought to lead to the development of multisensory-inclusive workspaces that promote rather than hinder our social, cognitive, and emotional development.

Theory to practice: Pleasure‐Arousal‐Dominance (PAD) theory for architectural color design

AbstractDesigners are often called upon to design therapeutic spaces that serve people who are in fragile emotional and/or physical states. While there is considerable guidance on designing for function in these spaces, the evidence‐based guidance on aesthetics is virtually non‐existent, especially when it comes to color. For a long time, the prevailing assumption in these studies, and among the public in general, has been that hues are the drivers of emotional content (e.g., red is exciting and blue is calming) and they have, for the most part, disregarded the distinct emotional connotations of light, dark, and muted versions of a hue. This oversight has led to unfortunate outcomes in the real world. The idea that blue is calming, for instance, has paved the way for brand new state‐of‐the‐art facilities featuring light blue walls that occupants may read as cold and unwelcoming. Designers need a rational, evidence‐based approach that helps them understand what many of them already know intuitively: spaces can be calm and inviting without being blue. After an overview of the design process, this article proposes that Pleasure‐Arousal‐Dominance (PAD) theory may aid designers to better understand that pale and dark (high and low value) colors convey opposites messages related to strength/power (dominance), and that vivid and muted colors (high and low chroma) convey opposite messages about energy/activity level (arousal). Finally, the author illustrates how this thought process might be applied in an architectural design practice.

A BIM–LCA Approach for the Whole Design Process of Green Buildings in the Chinese Context

The integrated description of the building geometry and the element attributes of the building information model (BIM) can reduce the effort needed to acquire data for life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) at each design stage while supporting their potential for analyzing life cycle performances and feeding back to the design process. To support this, several methods and tools have been proposed that aim to obtain the life cycle performances of buildings following the level of model fidelity with the life cycle inventory (LCI) database at different scales. However, inconsistencies in decision-making caused by regional differences in LCA/LCC data sources, benchmarks, and building standards cannot be ignored. In this study, a scalable LCA/LCC method integrated with the BIM platform is proposed for the whole green building design process in the Chinese context, and it is implemented with a developed tool based on Revit. A national-/regional-specified database of building elements and materials is established. Referring to China’s carbon-neutral target and relevant standards for green buildings, the baseline values are deduced, and a reference building is defined accordingly to facilitate the evaluation and improvement of the design scheme. According to the Assessment Standard for Green Building (GB50378-2019) and the survey of architectural design practices in China, the key parameters at different design stages are defined. The method and tool are demonstrated using the case study of a school building, analyzing its life cycle carbon emissions and life cycle costs throughout the design process. The results show that the proposed method can facilitate the improvement of the scheme at different design stages and that it can cope with different data accuracies and different LODs in the building information model in the Chinese green building design process. Lastly, the uncertainties raised by the data quality and time-associated factors are discussed.

Architectural Design Strategies for Enhancement of Thermal and Energy Performance of PCMs-Embedded Envelope System for an Office Building in a Typical Arid Saharan Climate

The literature showed many studies that evaluated single or multiple Phase change materials (PCMs) layers in passive, active, or in hybrid configurations for building applications. However, little attention has been given to evaluating the energy performance of buildings when PCMs are used together with other passive design strategies. In this work, the energy performance of an office building in a typical arid Saharan climate is simulated using EnergyPlus when a PCMs-embedded envelope is implemented. The office building was analyzed without/with PCMs using various thicknesses. Results indicated that the annual electrical energy for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) could be reduced between 3.54% and 6.18%, depending on the PCM thickness. The performance of the office building, including PCMs, was then simulated using two practical architectural design strategies, namely windows-to-wall ratio (WWR) and rezoning of the interior spaces. Outcomes revealed that the annual energy consumption for HVAC can be reduced from 10% to 15.5% and from 6.1% and 8.54% when WWR is reduced by half to three-quarters, and the perimeter zones are enlarged by one-third to two-thirds of the original space area, respectively. By combining both architectural design strategies and PCM, the annual electrical HVAC energy can be reduced between 12.08% and 15.69%, depending on the design configuration and PCM thickness. This design option provides additional benefits also since it reduces the vulnerability of increasing the lighting and fuel gas heating energy because more perimeter zones are exposed to daylighting and solar radiation, respectively.

Thermal Landscapes: Rahm's Meteorological Architecture

<p>In this paper, we will consider the issue of climate discourse, which is consistently connected with the emergence of the meteorological approach in the theory and practice of contemporary architecture and urban design. Thermal modernity appears as a contemporary space of critical debate that expands the possibilities of architectural thinking, positioning it in a transdisciplinary knowledge framework. The concept of meteorology is the result of research on biological and ecological causes and processes, thermal factors, actions, and interactions to establish a sensory connection of users with space. Therefore, invisible spatial qualities, atmospheres, are recognised as ontologically important elements of spatial experience. The new paradigm opposes visual dominance, formalism, and semiological interpretations, establishing a new way of social and environmental responsibility.</p>